NEW YORK  A seat in front of the television -- rather than a backyard barbecue -- was the place to be on Labor Day with fast-breaking news stories about Hurricane Gustav and head-turning revelations about GOP vice presidential choice Sarah Palin.

Everyone expected a busy day as it dawned. Yet neither of Monday's two big stories unfolded as anticipated, giving the coverage more intrigue.

"Make no mistake, it's been a wild day here," NBC's Brian Williams said, shortly after climbing a ladder on a levee to peer into New Orleans' Industrial Canal.

The consensus at the top of network evening news programs was that the hurricane spared New Orleans the brutal punch the city had feared. Gustav's broad expanse still tested news organizations trying to grasp the big picture while following developments community by community.

The Republican Party, at its national convention in St. Paul, Minn., had already set aside most of its opening night schedule because of the hurricane. The GOP bid to focus attention on hurricane relief was cast aside when John McCain's running mate revealed that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was pregnant.

During one whiplash-inducing stretch late Monday afternoon, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer switched from a report on Palin's daughter to a weakening levee in Lousiana's Plaquemines Parish, to Laura Bush's speech to convention delegates and back again to the levee.

Blitzer was anchoring CNN's hurricane coverage from the convention floor. John King's computer video board, usually used to call up mock electoral vote tallies, instead was showing aerial maps of Louisiana levees.

Williams, ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS' Katie Couric all anchored their evening newscasts from New Orleans. The broadcast networks had set aside one hour in prime time to follow opening night of the convention but quickly shifted to devote most of that time to the hurricane.

Gustav drew the extraordinary attention because of the damage done to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The comparison was a constant theme; Al Roker even mistakenly called this year's hurricane "Katrina" while discussing the projected path on the "Today" show.

It was the typical breathless hurricane scenes on TV: correspondents trying to deliver information while barely being able to stand in high winds and stinging rain. They worked in areas that officials had been urging people for two days to evacuate.

At one point as they stood on a bridge, Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera and a camera crew spotted a man in the water in the Industrial Canal.

"There's a person in the water!" Rivera shouted.

"Oh, my God!" someone said off camera.

The camera focused on a man in a life jacket trying to secure a loosened tank that had been banging against the side of a boat. The camera watched as the man, securely tethered to a lifeline, was pulled back onto a boat with his job complete.

The Weather Channel, particularly hurricane expert Steve Lyons, spoke with a calm authority. There was a sense its meteorologists were delivering hurricane trivia from a lifetime of knowledge rather than some quick study.

On the convention floor, the networks carried speeches by Laura Bush and Cindy McCain urging delegates and viewers to donate money to hurricane victims. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were both scheduled to speak on the convention's first night -- which some McCain loyalists weren't all that eager to see anyway -- but they stayed away from St. Paul because of the storm.

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell said the new schedule represented the GOP "trying to rebrand itself as a party that knows how to respond to a natural disaster."

The Bush administration's perceived disorganization following Katrina sent the president's approval ratings spiraling, and they haven't recovered.

"It's quite an effort by the Republican convention to adapt to new circumstances," said MSNBC's Chris Matthews. "I've never seen this before, where a party has completely reworked its agenda to meet an immediate national need, in this case a hurricane."

Yet it was still overshadowed by the news about Palin's daughter. The Alaska governor has also hired a lawyer to represent her in an investigation over the firing of her public safety commissioner.

The networks' reporting on Palin's daughter was subdued. They covered Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's statement that the news shouldn't be part of the campaign. The stories refrained from criticizing Palin's family, and Fox's Brit Hume said he talked to a prominent religious conservative who said many people he knew would appreciate that her daughter has decided to keep the baby.

"She's getting a free pass from all the delegates," said NBC News' Chuck Todd.

This Labor Day at least, Jerry Lewis had plenty of competition for attention.

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